I’m a long time rider and horse owner. My family had a riding guest farm in PA and I’ve lived with horses on our farms from OH to IL to VA for over thirty five years. My daughter rode even before she was born.
About the time my daughter needed someplace to ride safe horses for little ones I began to meet parents who didn’t grow up around horses and who didn’t know where to start when their children became dedicated pony kids. I began to get the idea that grew into Gift Horse Baskets, gifts for riders and their horses chosen by a source with plenty of hands on horse care and riding experience.
My daughter grew and began to ride competitively. Ever the supportive horse show Mom, off we went sharing early mornings and long days learning and watching and taking the ever important photographs. Cross rails progressed to higher levels and on to interscholastic competition. I clearly remember one show because in the midst of so many riders the best prize premium they could come up with were key ring Beanie babies and so another part of the Gift Horse Basket idea fell into place. Horse show prize premiums could be items riders needed and would use every day and not something to gather dust or be forgotten on a shelf.
A web site was built and a business started. We evolved an onsite shop to set up at large horse shows. I was now a ringside horse show mom at “A” shows, and active riders spending their time at horse shows got the opportunity to see just what kinds of practical products and tools we offer. Trainers and riders were attracted to our eye catching shop, and have come to appreciate our boutique approach of stocking quality grooming tools and products we’ve found to work the best. Not every product, not the cheapest or most expensive but the ones most often used because they work.
We constantly reassess and try new products. We regularly shop the equestrian trade shows looking for new suppliers with items we’ve been waiting for someone to offer. More and more horse folks are finding our creative approaches to prize awards and gift giving are just what they were looking for, we hope you will too-